by Benjamin Slomowitz

Four DCCC students at Delaware County Community College tested their knowledge of Black History Month by participating in the Quizzo trivia game on Feb. 10.

This was the second Quizzo hosted by the campus and was also the first to be centered around Black History Month, created in collaboration with the College’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

All the four students won at least one round of the game and earned $50, including Caylee Thomas, Paige Wills, and Alexander Zurl.

According to Allyson Gleason, director of Campus Life, Quizzo was started during the COVID-19 pandemic to “grow our own [home-grown] trivia program” due to the popularity of trivia and quiz games. Before then, they had hosted “game show” events brought in by other companies such as “Minute to Win It” and “Music Challenge,” both of which were in-person before the pandemic.

“The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear ‘Black History Month’ is really a celebration,” Gleason said. “It’s really about giving voice and acknowledging and celebrating the black history and figures that are prominent and the everyday experiences of people of color everywhere, particularly in the U.S. To keep it kind of fun and keep it kind of fresh, that’s kind of where the quiz is stepping from.”

Black History Month Quizzo was separated into five rounds: the first round involved “Athletics,” the second was “Moments in History,” the third centered around “Healthcare,” the fourth discussed “Music,” and the fifth and final round covered “Fictional Characters.”

Famous athletes in the first round featured Jackie Robinson, Willie O’Ree, Jesse Owens, Simone Biles, Muhammed Ali, Lisa Leslie, Arthur Ashe, Tiger Woods, Willie Davenport, and Jeff Gadley.

During the second round, renowned figures in history included Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, former President Barack Obama, current vice president Kamala Harris, and Malcolm X. The second round also brought up both the African-American Museum in Philadelphia and the annual holiday Juneteenth.

The third round featured some celebrated figures in the health industry, including Dr. Hale Williams, Jerome Adams, John Lewis, Charles Drew, Joycelyn Elders, Henrietta Lacks, Tracy Ellis Ross, Magic Johnson, and Obama once again.

In the fourth round, famous musicians of the past and present, including Meek Mill, Beyoncé, Wendy Williams, Aretha Franklin, Charley Pride, John Legend, and Dionne Warwick, were featured.

The final round centered around fictional characters, including T’Challa from Marvel’s “Black Panther,” Princess Tiana from Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog,” Agent J from “Men in Black,” Chris in “Get Out,” Nick Fury and Storm from “Marvel,” Olivia Pope from the TV show “Scandal,” and Zuri in the animated short film “Hair Power.”

Quizzo is another example of a long list of European influences on American culture, but it started closer to home than you might imagine.

According to WHYY’s local news site billypenn.com, the earliest known record of Quizzo taking place in the United States was in Wildwood, NJ in 1992 by a bartender from Kensington, named Patrick Hines. He had come back to the United States after visiting the town of Belfast, Ireland.

To please his manager, who wanted more Irish people to work at the Wildwood boardwalk over the summer, Hines suggested him the game Quizzo, called a “pub quiz” in Ireland and parts of the U.S., which he participated in while in Belfast.

Once Hines implemented it into the pub, nearly an entire crowd of Irish people flocked to the pub to play Quizzo and work at the Jersey Shore. It became an instant success, and Hines made a lot of money within hours, WHYY explains.

Since then, the population of Quizzo in Philadelphia has caught on, and Philadelphians have created websites like “quizzadelphia.com” and “quizzoinphilly.com” to help people find the nearest bars that offer the game.

The next Quizzo at DCCC will focus on International Women’s Day March 8 from 3-5 p.m.., followed by an Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage-themed Quizzo on April 15.

Contact Benjamin Slomowitz at communitarian@mail.dccc.edu